Merry Band of Artists: Magic School Busk to drive Cambridge art movement

Thursday

Jul 31, 2014 at 10:16 AMJul 31, 2014 at 1:53 PM

By Sara Feijosfeijo@wickedlocal.com

City Councilor Nadeem Mazen is turning his campaign bus into a pop-up art venue on wheels.The Magic School Busk — a 1988 international diesel school bus that has become its own work of art as community members paint and adorn the exterior — will travel Cambridge neighborhoods, sharing art exhibits, concerts and theater productions. The bus will even become home to a mobile lab for science experiments.Mazen said he always planned to turn his City Council campaign bus into a learning site."I was sitting on a bus from New York to Boston and I was like, ‘I wonder how much a bus is,’" Mazen said. "I actually bought it on Craigslist on the way home. The goal wasn’t to have a campaign bus; it was to have a mobile teaching laboratory."Mazen, who is an artist and innovator, said he hopes the bus will serve as a learning place and a driving mechanism to help showcase and promote artists’ work."I believe people are hungry to teach and a lot of times they don’t have a venue," Mazen said. "The average artist doesn’t have access to venues and money to pay for their work, so having coordination for formal and informal events that support them is needed."Though Mazen envisioned the concept, the masters behind the art are Toni Tiemann and Amyko Ishizaki, who have taken over the project with the help of others.According to Tiemann, community members will revitalize the bus on Sunday, Aug. 3, by following artist Ernest McKinley English’s paint-by-number design."He creates the basic design and then he lets the community paint it in," Tiemann said. "He already created the design and the community will be able to paint it in. It’s a wonderful way to engage the community from the beginning."The activity will be just one of the many highlights at Jamapalooza, the kick-off event for Art City, another one of Mazen’s ideas to celebrate the arts.According to Ishizaki, Art City’s co-founder, the month-long festival in August will pay homage to different artistic genres every weekend, and the bus will be its roaming mechanism."Art City kind of spanned off from a general premise I have called community engagement," Mazen said.The festival will start at noon in Lafayette Square and it will feature a lineup of eight local bands, three area comedians and various vendors, Tiemann said."We have these really talented people in our community and we just want to share their work," Tiemann said, adding that all events will be free or at a low cost to the public.Other weekends, Ishizaki said, will celebrate cinematography and dance, for example."We just like the idea of you walking around Cambridge and coming across a puppeteer show, and then you keep walking and come across a (music) show, and then keep walking and see a dance museum," Ishizaki said. "We’re trying to get artists to publicly perform their work."Mauricio Jimenez, the lead singer of Night Lights, an indie-rock fusion band comprised of five Berklee College of Music students, said the group is eager to be the festival’s main attraction."It’s really, really exciting to hear that we’re going to be the main act," Jimenez said. "This is going to be our first experience performing in a festival, which is awesome. Being in a Boston festival is special."Tiemann expects at least 500 people will show up to the free event. She said she hopes that Art City will eventually become a year-round festival."All of this — the bus and Art City — is just to support our local art," Tiemann said. "We hope that Art City grows to something that’s in place all year-round."The team is looking for volunteers and seeking monetary donations to install solar panels and a roof deck for music performances on the bus, which will run all year round, Mazen said. The group also wants to convert the bus from diesel to vegetable oil, he said."This is a come-one-come-all type of thing. The sweat donations are even more important than the monetary one," Mazen said, adding that the group welcomes teachers, interior designers and builders who wish to donate their time or supplies.For more information about Magic School Busk or to volunteer, email themagicschoolbusk@gmail.com.For information on Art City, visit www.facebook.com/artcitycambridge. To volunteer, email artcitycambridge@gmail.com.Art City calendar of events:JamapaloozaWhere: Lafayette SquareWhen: Aug. 3 | noon to 10 p.m.Community Film FestivalWhere: Lesley University Hall AmphitheaterWhen: Aug. 9 | noon to 6 p.m.Outdoor Dance MuseumWhere: Winthrop ParkWhen: Aug. 16 | 5 - 7 p.m.Jump In: Day of DanceWhere: Dance ComplexWhen: Aug. 17 | 2 - 6 p.m.Art Walk in the ParkWhere: University Park (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)When: Aug. 23 - 24 | 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.Comedy NightsWhere: East Meets WestWhen: Aug. 27 - 29Doors: 7:30 p.m.Show: 8 - 10 p.m.Cambridge Arts Council Events:CRLS Photo Show:now through Aug. 6My First Gallery Show:Aug. 11 - 29Lou Jones Photo Show:Sept. 8 - 19